60 Minutes

60 Minutes is, most definatly, the gold standard. They find out things that no one else can find out, and they can break stories no one else has even heard of. They get interviews with the people who matter and bring the stories that matter to the public. It is truly the one and only REAL news show left. Not a 60 second sound clip that tells you nothing, but an in depth look. They ask the tough questions, to the tough people, and get it all right. Theres a reason it has been on the show for so many years, and is one of the most popular programs in history even today.

This is the news show to which other news shows aspire, and none has ever even come close. This show has been on for 35 years because people trust it. They know that what they see and hear will be the unvarnished, unbiased truth; while a fatuous blowhard like Bill O'Reilly can call his show "The No-Spin Zone" when it is actually nothing BUT spin, viewers know that "60 Minutes" doesn't "spin" anything; it's not afraid to take on powerful people, institutions and corporations, and in fact has even raked its own network over the coals on more than one occasion. The show has a reputation for integrity that is unparalleled in the history of TV, and the fact that it has often elicited howls of protest from both the right and the left because of its coverage or investigations of issues or people "sacred" to those particular political philosophies is testimony to its effectiveness. This show is as good as it's possible to get.

60 Minutes has some occasional moments of juice, but it lost its edge. 60 Minutes years ago was a lot more interesting, had harder-hitting stories, more "raw" interviews, capturing priceless moments on camera of innocence, guilt, glory, fame, whatever.

However, the show today is tired and boring. There is no gusto. Is it a coincidence that once Lowell Bergman left, the show started to suck? Anyone who saw The Insider knows the story here. 60 Minutes "sold its soul" in the 1990's due to the tobacco scandal. Stock-owning executives from 60 Minutes falsified dangers that 60 Minutes would be the target of billion-dollar lawsuits from tobacco companies that would fell CBS if they aired a controversial public news piece from a former tobacco executive.

A partial result of the fallout was that Lowell Bergman, the main producer of the 60 Minutes tobacco segment, left the show and now works for Frontline, a brilliant PBS documentary news show. Frontline is FAR more interesting and hard-hitting than 60 Minutes has been in years.

Back to 60 Minutes...they seems to "go easy" these days and have one easy to medium news story. They mix that with some other "profile" type story, and throw in a non-threatening interview with some easygoing person. Something a teenager with a camcorder could do (follow around some singer and throw in some good writing).

All very boring for the most part. Too easy, no more edge.

60 Minutes used to the finest show around. Frontline years ago supplanted it as the best investigative journalism show around.

In their 5/21/23 episode, 60 minutes painted black the best industry in the world that made the USA strong and powerful for decades. They claimed that the DoD contractors are charging the US government thousands and millions of dollars without regard to the real cost, or in other words cheating. This is so unfair to blame an industry that made the US military to be the best in the world without understanding how expensive it is to buy parts and components due to inflation running out of control and decline in manufacturing that provide competitive parts. A lot to blame for cost of chain supply, manufacturing, and materials that went up so much that your grocery shopping will look cheap.

I began watching 60 Minutes around 1979. I was in high school and I have never stopped. As someone mentioned before me, it is definitely formula, but the formula definitely works. 20/20 and the multitude of other news shows that have attempted to imitate it have never come close. Watch this show and you will definitely learn something!